


Love's Sweet Scent

by GuardianDreamer



Category: Ozmafia!! (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Light-Hearted, Post-Canon, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2018-09-23
Packaged: 2019-07-16 01:31:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16075559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuardianDreamer/pseuds/GuardianDreamer
Summary: Fuka's presence at Pashet's side is a welcome one, yet as they've grown closer, Pashet's grasp on her own feelings for her best friend has changed significantly. Spoilers for Pashet's route, no spoilers for the other routes.





	Love's Sweet Scent

The smell of bread had long since become familiar to Pashet, but there were still moments like these where she would muse about how her life had gotten to this point when she hadn’t ever envisioned this sort of career in the past. Well, even for a skilled swordfighter like her, she had to admit that the smell of bread was far preferable to the smell of rust and sweat. … Well, there was still some sweat involved in this new line of work. If her experiences operating a bakery had taught her anything, it was that the job of a warrior was far more similar to that of a baker than she had ever previously thought. Never again would she think lesser of those who devoted themselves fully to mastering cuisine.

Of course, just as things changed, there remained unexpected constants. All in all, it had only been about half a year since the first day that she met the strange amnesiac who called herself Fuka. It was perhaps rude of Pashet to think of her in those terms, but she imagined that Fuka herself would allow her that much. What other way could she possibly find to describe someone who belonged to no famiglia and who seemed intent on unintentionally making a mockery of all of the rules, spoken and unspoken that the various famiglie had agreed to? She could only imagine what could have happened if Fuka had come under the custody of a famiglia that wasn’t Oz. Axel and Caramia had what was necessary to get Fuka adjusted to the city that she had found herself in. … She refused to speak any compliments to Kyrie, but if she was forced to, then she had to admit that he at least served as a model of what Fuka should avoid doing.

Compared to Oz, the other options seemed so much more frightening to her. That included her now-defunct famiglia. As proud as she was of the Boots famiglia, she knew that she would have tried to make Fuka a warrior. Fuka was many things, but a warrior was not one of them, at least not in the traditional sense. Her strength came from a place that took much later for Pashet to realize and appreciate. The other possibilities weren’t much better. Famiglia Grimm had been struggling to stay afloat, and if it wasn’t for Scarlet just barely keeping it together, she imagined that Hansel and Gretel would have ruined it entirely without even intending to. Famiglia Anderson’s don, Ande, specialized in aggressively selling matches and was a gleeful would-be pyromaniac. For obvious reasons, Fuka would be in danger there. As for Famiglia Adelheid, she had a very difficult time imagining Heidi looking after anyone with Fuka’s strange worldview without getting extremely angry. She refused to even consider the Wolf Gang as a possibility. … Yes, as much as she hated to admit it, Famiglia Oz was probably the best place she could have found herself in.

And now Fuka was in front of her, lost in her own thoughts while taking a break. Pashet had requested that she run some errands, which she was surprisingly well-suited for. The Fuka that seemed so lost before was now… Well, still very, very, very lost. But she knew her way around the city and had formed many strange connections that helped with running odd errands. Technically, they were both up very early, long before the bakery itself would open for business. Early mornings, thankfully, were not an issue for Pashet. That was something she had gotten used to as a swordfighter. … Perhaps it was a bit scary that she kept finding parallels between the culinary life and the warrior life.

Suddenly, Fuka yawned. Quite loudly. She blinked a few times and then turned towards Pashet.

“You know… If you baked them well enough, I bet you could use bread loaves as pillows.” Fuka said this as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Fuka, who continued to say abnormal things that caused Pashet to wonder if she would ever cease to amaze her, seemed entirely serious about this suggestion. Pashet wasn’t even sure how to react to it. She thought that her silence alone would say enough, but considering Fuka’s personality, she imagined that it would just result in her thinking that Pashet was just considering it very carefully.

So she vigorously shook her head and did her best to explain what seemed easy to explain. “You would have better luck using rusty shields as pillows. At least they would age far more gracefully.”

Once again, she ended up underestimating Fuka’s capability to completely misunderstand the point that she was trying to get across.

“Huh? Do you use shields as pillows, Pashet? I… I’m so sorry. I should have known you’d want something to remind you of how things used to be, but I didn’t think it got this bad. Pashet, show me the shield pillows! I’ll buy you actual pillows!” Fuka said this with far more passion than was appropriate for the situation.

Wait. What was this, exactly? Why did Pashet now feel like she was the ridiculous one in this situation? How had Fuka managed to lecture her while not actually realizing that she was doing so? … Why was she lecturing her about hypothetical shield pillows when Fuka herself had suggested using bread loaves, apparently completely seriously? Was there such a giant leap in plausibility? She had no idea how to react to this. It was too early for this.

Her stunned silence ended up backfiring on her. Seemingly out of pity, Fuka had taken it upon herself to deliver a headpat to Pashet. She could feel her own cheeks growing redder with embarrassment, and it didn’t help that Fuka’s eyes showed a certain resoluteness, so convinced she was that she was the one talking sense while Pashet was being ridiculous. Somehow, she ended up stammering some words out, nowhere near as composedly as she hoped.

“F-Fuka, enough of this! It was a hypothetical scenario! By my blade, I swear that I’m speaking the truth!” Pashet’s explanation seemed to take a while to dawn on Fuka, but when it finally did, she averted her eyes, finally getting some idea of how strange she had come across. … Probably not the full extent, but as close as she was going to get.

“S-Sorry, Pashet… Did I make you angry?” Fuka’s question was absolutely ridiculous because Pashet couldn’t imagine being legitimately angry at Fuka, at least not in the way that she was suggesting. Angry at her for endangering herself? Yes. Angry at her for another one of her strange, yet harmless mistakes? No. It had long since dawned on Pashet that Fuka’s idea of normality was so far removed from everyone else’s in the city because of the unique circumstances in which she had appeared in the city in the first place. Pashet wanted to take special care to make sure that she wouldn’t feel uncomfortable about that. … Though in cases like these, it became extraordinarily difficult.

“Of course not. It takes more than this to wedge a deep divide between… Best friends.” Pashet looked uncomfortable as she pushed those final two words out. ‘Best friends’ was a term that Fuka had decided on herself and had asked Pashet to use more often in the hopes that it would make the two of them feel closer.

Upon receiving forgiveness for her error, Fuka smiled. It was a smile that Pashet would never tire of. A smile of purity, one that seemed imbued with the power to wipe away all of her stress. It was one of the things that convinced Pashet that Fuka wasn’t suited to be a warrior. Perhaps it was selfish on her part to want to preserve that innocent smile, but she didn’t want to see it sullied by the horrors of battle. … Even if it was selfish, in some ways, Pashet recognized that Fuka was stronger than she was. She had never managed to attain that sort of healing presence that seemed so capable of attracting people. It was a smile of the person who had, under strange circumstances, ended up being the most important person in her life.

It was a smile she loved.

It was the smile of the woman she loved.

Yes. It had dawned on her before that she was in love with Fuka, and this only served as a bittersweet reminder. It seemed impossible to her at first. Was she just transferring her feelings for Axel to the next possible person after he had indirectly turned her down before? That would be the height of selfishness and so Pashet had tried to bury her feelings. That didn’t end up working.

So she moved onto the next possible excuse: She was mixing up romantic love with a need to just be close to someone else. The bond between friends could be just as strong as the bond between lovers, after all. … But this excuse too fell apart when she found herself blushing far more than she was used to. She imagined herself as the gallant knight rushing off to Fuka’s side. … These probably weren’t platonic thoughts. She wasn’t used to female friendship, so she wasn’t completely sure, but she was about 99% sure.

“Pashet? Are you okay?” Fuka’s words snapped her out of her thoughts, and Pashet looked away.

She had regretted not taking the chance to be upfront with Axel about her feelings, though in that case, the issue of their famiglie also played a part. … But with the experience from that in her mind, and with Famiglia Boots now dissolved, Pashet logically knew that she could confess to Fuka. She should. What was the worst that could happen? She would turn her down, and they could resume being best friends. Surely, if she was scared of this, she wouldn’t have been able to bravely fight so many strong opponents in the past?

And yet there was still fear in her heart. Because her heart was something that she herself didn’t understand. And now she was panicking slightly because Fuka was growing more and more concerned the longer that Pashet stayed silent. … Should she claim that she had a fever? That would explain to Fuka why her cheeks were so red. Wait, no, then Fuka would insist on looking after her, and Pashet would just end up digging a deeper hole for herself.

In the art of the blade, she was a master. In culinary skills, she was a talented learner. In affairs of the heart, she was a hopeless fool who had been struck by Cupid’s arrows twice now.

Wait. In the first place, was this even an appropriate time to confess? Very early in the morning with absolutely no fanfare, after such an inane conversation?

“Fuka… Should the need ever arise, will you allow me to take up my sword again to defend you? To stand next to you for all eternity?” Pashet immediately internally berated herself for being so indirect. What was Fuka going to make of this?

Surprisingly, she giggled. It was oddly playful.

“That’s a lot to ask of you… An eternity with you sounds nice, though.” Fuka’s words seemed deliberately chosen to tease her specifically and there was no other explanation for it, except she didn’t have that sort of maliciousness to her.

Pashet needed to speak up again.

“No, Fuka, what I mean is… If you would have me by your side, then I… You’re a source of so much strength to me, and-” Pashet’s words came to an abrupt stop as Fuka suddenly hugged her.

“I know, Pashet. I’ve been waiting for you to say it for a while now, actually… You weren’t very subtle. I thought I wasn’t being subtle either, though… Um… In books, this is the part where the knight kisses the princess, isn’t it? I’d… Like that.” Fuka’s words seemed entirely unexpected to her. … She had known.

She had known?

When? How? What was this? Why did Pashet once again feel like the ridiculous one? … Why did she feel so… Weirdly calm now? After a few breaths to steady herself, she found herself oddly at peace. … Was this what love felt like? It seemed so different from the heart-pounding excitement that she had experienced before, and yet so much more pleasant despite how much less exciting it was.

“... Um, yes, I would like that very much…” Pashet was able to get out the words somehow.

They shared a quick kiss. A fairly chaste kiss, all things considered. Once again, it hadn’t been what Pashet had expected. She expected intensity. What she got instead was a peaceful fragment of happiness that overwhelmed and soothed her. … Somehow, she found it far more preferable.

She imagined that it would be difficult to explain this to the others. But that was the furthest thing from her mind at the moment. Right now, she felt the need to say one final thing.

“Thank you, Fuka. I will endeavor to make you as happy as I possibly can. If… If we can’t restore your memories, then I can at least promise you on my honor as a knight that I will help you make as many happy memories to cherish as you desire.”

It was a strange scene brought upon by strange circumstances. An unlikely confession taking place in an unlikely place. And yet, she knew that it wouldn’t feel right any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this fanfic during the middle of my playthrough of OZMAFIA!! when I was disappointed to find out that Pashet didn't have a romantic ending. So I wrote one, only hesitating to publish it so that I could play the rest of the game and make sure that I hadn't written something that was proven blatantly wrong later. Thankfully, that wasn't an issue. I do genuinely like Fuka and Pashet's friendship, but it felt like one of her endings could easily have been romantic. By the same token, I also like Axel as a character, so I took special care to respect that Pashet does canonically have romantic feelings for him. I hope that I was able to strike a nice middleground.
> 
> There were about a million different titles I had in mind for this before I decided on the current one. I think it might be a bit cheesy, but I don't mind that if it evokes both the romance and the fact that this fic takes place entirely in a bakery. I hope that you enjoyed reading this fic and I hope that I was able to do this pairing well.


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